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Rigil Kentarus was settled early on during the Exodus. The world had an inhabitable moon, and it's position near Terra insured it would be one of the first worlds settled.[1] Rigil Kentarus was one of the worlds that remained a part of the Terran Alliance following the Outer Reaches Rebellion and the Demarcation Declaration of 2242,[2] and became one of the worlds within the Alliance Core region of the Terran Hegemony.[6] As part of the Terran Hegemony, Rigil Kentarus received several SLDF bases to bolster Terran defense. These bases included several Castles Brian and SDS systems on both the planet and the moon, Riken Minor.[1]

Unfortunately, during the Amaris Civil War Rim Worlds troops drove the defending SLDF forces off Riken Minor. From the moon, they blasted the surface of Rigil Kentarus with the massive lasers and particle cannons available to them. At such ranges the fire was wildly inaccurate, and the Rim Worlds attacks inflicted massive amounts of damage on the world's surface.[1]

During the Succession Wars, Rigil Kentarus started to recover with help from the Lyran Commonwealth government. These efforts weren't hampered by the occasional Draconis Combine or Free Worlds League raid. All that recovery work was undone however, during the Jihad. The Blakists wanted Rigil Kentarus to secure Terra, and would stop at nothing to get it. After deploying nuclear and chemical weapons of mass destruction on the world and moon, nearly half the cities of Rigil Kentarus were destroyed and the atmosphere was tainted.[1]

Rigil Kentarus was liberated by allied coalition forces in a campaign lasting just over two weeks in 3078. The assault began on the 20th of May and ended on the 5th of June, but problems for the allied coalition didn't stop with the liberation of the planet; the bulk of the coalition forces who liberated the planet were Clan units drawn from Clan Ghost Bear, Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Wolf, and the three Clan blocs promptly divided the spoils from the campaign up amongst themselves via Clan trials, ignoring the protests from the non-Clan elements of the allied contingent.[27] After staging their Trials of Possession with the Ghost Bears, Clan Jade Falcons' Alpha Galaxy and Clan Wolf's Delta Galaxy departed Rigil Kentarus on the 5th of June.[42]

In the wake of the Jihad the planetary government on Rigil Kentarus passed a law stating that any war materiel manufactured or used by the Word of Blake had to be destroyed; selling the equipment or parts of the equipment was illegal. As a result, companies such as Paddington Metals were employed to scrap and smelt down Blakist 'Mechs and equipment. The law passed on Rigil Kentarus was typical of that implemented on a number worlds, and was both more moderate than the law passed on Freedom but stricter than the corresponding law implemented on New Earth.[43]